So Familiar
by Still Searching
Summary: The girls of the Celcius haven't had to deal with Vegnagun yet. This is a very different story.. but a lot of it will still follow the main plot of FFX-2. There's a new character. Who is she? Read to find out. There will be a few angsty chapters in this s
1. A Night Meeting on the SS Winno

I do not own FFX2 or any of the characters (well besides my own). Happy Reading! 

"G'Nite Rikku!" Yuna called as she started towards her bedroom in the cabin area of the S.S. Winno.

"You too!" I yelled back as she gently closed the door behind her, disappearing into the darkness. I sat around for a few more minutes, making sure she was officially asleep, then I walked on tiptoe up the cabin stairs, and stepped through the double doors onto the dimly lit deck of the ship. The night sky was filled with tiny pinpricks of bright stars, and even though the moon was not fully out, everything was illuminated with an almost surreal glow. Stepping over to the edge, I leaned over the railing and watched the dark blue waves lap gently against the sides of the cruiser, as if they were trying to rock the giant ship to sleep with their soothing music.

Even though the Winno would take a lot longer to get to the Luca than the Celsius would, I could not help but feel secretly glad that Brother had knocked off two of our rocket boosters on one of the cliffs near Besaid. (He swears it was because he sneezed and took his eyes off the path, but we all knew it was because he had been staring at Yuna in her Lady Luck dress.) I had always loved the sea, and ever since we had started using the air ship, I hadn't gotten the chance to travel by boat much. We would dock in Luca, stay the night for the Eternal Calm celebration, and then walk on foot to see Rin at the Mi'hen Travel Agency the next morning. He would be there with the two parts we needed, and then Yuna, Paine and I could finally continue with our sphere hunting.

Suddenly, I heard a shuffle of footsteps scraping lightly across the front deck and I gripped the railing tightly into my gloved hands. Who would be up at this hour, I thought suspiciously, blowing a stream of air through my teeth.

"Well... you're up at this hour aren't you, why wouldn't someone else be?" I whispered to myself, a small smile creeping across my face. Loosening my grip, I slid quietly away from the railing. My curiosity had gotten the best of me, and I crept silently around the side of the Captain's chambers towards the nose of the ship. As it came into my sights, I crouched down low with a mischievous grin on my face, preparing to pounce on my unsuspecting victim. Whoever was on the deck was going to get a big Rikku surprise, but as I rounded the corner I stopped dead in my tracks.

Standing in the dim light of the lantern post, was a girl that couldn't have been much younger than me, her shoulder length blonde hair blowing behind her in the cool night breeze. Her thin, pale face was pointed downwards, and her eyes were tightly closed, as if trying to shut off the rest of the world from her little place on the Winno. Fingerless gloved fists were curled around a long iron rod, and it looked plenty heavy for a girl with such a small frame. Hoping she wouldn't notice, I ducked behind a pile of large cargo crates, and peeked my deep green eyes over the top, watching her.

_Strange..._ I thought, _Why is she standing out here like that, and what's up with her wacked out clothes?_

Her feet were clad in the combat boots of the Crusaders, even though that had disbanded long before. Dark black boots, with a thick blood red rubber sole, complete with a thick silver steel toe. A pair of black baggy cargo jeans hung loosely around her extremely thin waist, exposing a thin sliver of her milky white stomach, and I briefly wondered how they stayed around her. She wore an unbuttoned black blouse that fluttered in the breeze, revealing a tight, dark red tee shirt that looked like it was well worn. Topping it all off, around her neck hung a pair of silver dog tags, each reflecting the light of the lanterns.

"She's unbelievably skinny..." I mused. It was the truth; she looked like she hadn't had a good nutritious meal in weeks, and I felt a ping of sympathy welling up in my chest. Being the fidgety person I am, I couldn't stand to just sit in one place any longer, so I emmerged from the shadows, and stepped lightly towards the silent woman. Just as I got close enough to touch her, a board creaked loudly underfoot, and before I could scold myself, the girl's eyelids snapped open, revealing the brightest green eyes I had ever seen. Startled, she raised her weapon above her head, preparing to smash the stranger standing before her.. heh.. meaning me.

With a little scream I dropped to my knees and covered my unprotected head, praying for a quick, painless death. I cowered there for a few seconds, but when the sound of my head cracking open didn't come, I looked up slowly, wondering why I wasn't in the Farplane. The blonde was still there, except now her rod was lying on the ground, and she was breathing quick shallow breaths.

"I...I'm so sorry." She stammered. "I thought you were a fiend and I was so caught up in my meditation that I..." Cautiously, I pulled my hands from my cranium, warily eyeing the weapon that now lay on the ground between us. She didn't grab for it, so I rose all the way to my feet. I stared into her green eyes and when I was was positive she was truly remorseful, I broke into a grin and said,

"Hey, don't worry about it if it was just an accident. At least you didn't uhh... follow through, you know?."

A shy smile played across her small lips and a sigh of relief escaped from somewhere inside her. She opened her mouth as if it talk, but instead she stepped back a few small steps, eyeing me strangely, her head cocked to one side. I laughed nervously, wondering if there was something on my face or if my hair was a mess. Suddenly, she inhaled sharply and her eyes popped open as big as Wakka's blitzballs.

"LADY RIKKU?!" she cried. "I can't believe this... I almost killed you, a thousand apologies...I..I..." Quickly dropping to one knee, she bowed her head in Spira's traditional show of respect, and even though I had seen plenty of people bow their heads towards me as I walked by, I still felt uncomfortable when people did so.

"Hey..no need for formalities, just call me Rikku. Oh, and you can stand up." I said gently, as I placed my hand on her shoulder. Reluctantly she got back to her feet and began tugging at her shirt and hair. While she fidgeted before me, I finally got a real good look at her. She reminded me of someone. Someone that I knew or had known before... Did she resemble Paine? Maybe... Both of their faces were solemn and serious, except most of the time Paine looked just plain mean, this girl looked as if she had been through a lot. She had that 'Sad puppy' look. She almost looked Al Bhed, with her blonde hair and piercing green eyes, but she was missing the swirling pupils.

"What's your name?" I asked while she was picking up her rod.

"My name? Oh... It's Raven." She answered. "My friends always used to call me that because most of my clothes consist of one color. Black."

I was not sure if she had intended for her comment to be a joke, but I giggled just the same. She smiled a sheepish smile, her face turning a deep shade of pink A few awkward seconds lapsed and we were left without anything to say, but neither of us made a move to leave each other's presence.

"So Raven... I'm eighteen, how old are you?" I asked, breaking the silence. Hey it was the only thing I could think of.

"Sixteen, not much younger than you I guess." She replied her head dropping a little, and to tell you the truth I was a little shocked. I expected her to be a little closer to my age. She seemed wise somehow.. maybe it was those deep eyes.

She glanced up and our eyes locked, so I just had to ask. "Are you... an Al Bhed?"

"Well..yes... half Al Bhed anyway." She responded. "My mother was an Al Bhed, but she died not long after I was born." Her gaze dropped to her feet, and it was obvious this was a touchy subject.

I touched her shoulder gently..

"My mother died around the same time yours did ... I was two when she passed away." I told her, while I grasped for something to change the subject. "Did you know Yuna is half Al Bhed too? That means we all have something in common!"

"Lady Yuna is on the ship too!?" Raven cried, her head snapping up, her eyes flashing with an excited gleam. She was using those darn formalities again.

"It's just plain Yuna, and yeah!" I said.

"Do you think... I could meet her?" she asked.

"Of course! but I mean, She's asleep now but tomorrow morning I'm sure she'd be happy to talk with you!" I said happily.

Raven grinned, and sat down on one of the boxes I had been hiding behind earlier. Sitting there she sobered up and fixed her eyes out onto the ocean as if asking it what she should say next.

"Where are you headed after we dock in Luca?" she questioned, never shifting her gaze from the dark waves.

"Mi'hen Highroad to visit some old friends and buy some parts for our airship.." I said. "What about yourself?"

"So am I." She said quietly, "For the same reason I guess..well I'm not buying parts for any air ship, but to visit family." I pondered over this for a minute, and then grinning I said..

"Then stay with us in Luca! The Eternal Calm 2nd year celebration is there tomorrow night, and you can sleep over with us afterwards! It'll be fun!" I knew I was jumping into trusting this girl way too hastily, but there was something about her.

Finally she turned to look at me, that same shy smile creeped across her face and she happily agreed. "I'd like that."

"Woo hoo!" I exclaimed. "Meet us on the dock as soon as you wake up in the morning so I can introduce you to Yuna and Paine. You'll like Paine a lot, you guys have the same taste in clothing."

She chuckled and stood up from her seat, stretching her arms above her head.

"So... tomorrow then" she said, stifling a yawn.

Seeing her yawn, I realized just how tired I really was. We had been up all night before trying to fix the airship, and I had gone all day without so much as a nap. It was almost 2 A.M. now and we would arrive at seven the next morning. It was probably time for me to get into bed.

"Yup yup." I said. "It was nice meeting you. Tomorrow. Don't forget. Kuuthekrd." I said sleepily as I turned to walk towards the cabin door.

"I won't. Kuuthekrd." She replied, as I passed through the double doors, gently closing them behind me.

Quickly changing from my daily attire to my pajamas, I hopped into the bed I was sharing with Yuna. I reached up to turn off the light and as I did so, I again thought of how familiar Raven was.

"I'll remember sooner or later." I whispered..

Leaning back onto the mattress, I pulled the covers up to my chin and snuggled closer to Yuna for warmth. Before you could say 'Shoopuf' I had fallen into a much needed, dreamless sleep.

Thanks for reading so far. If I get 10 good reviews I'll continue with this story. If not then I'll probably just drop it. Please review! It'll make me super happy. Oh yeah and Kuuthekrd means Good Night in Al Bhed.


	2. Who is this girl?

"Rikku... Rikku... HEY RIKKU!!!"

"Argh, what do you want?!" I questioned angrily without opening my eyes. (I knew it was Paine from her monotone voice.) "It's way to early to be up!!"

"There are people in trouble! Get your scrawny Al Bhed butt up and help me!" Paine cried, and I heard footsteps rapidly thundering out of the room.

That definitely got my attention, and I flung the covers back from my body and dashed out of bed. I heard grumbling behind me as Yuna also scrambled sleepily out of the blankets, her layered brown hair a jumbled mess. We dressed quickly, throwing on our dress spheres with our usual ease. Yuna's outfit was her regular gunner, while I put on my favorite thief outfit, and we both rushed up the stairs to the deck as quick as our legs would carry us.

As we busted through the double doors, I noticed everyone was leaning against the railing on the right side of the ship, eyes wide and mouths hanging open. Paine was standing on the very outskirts of the crowd, her long skull sword swung over her left shoulder.

"What's going on?!" Yuna shouted as we jogged our way over to the emotionless warrior. Paine simply pointed in the general direction everyone was having a fuss over and we both stopped and turned to see what the hubbub was about.

"Oh NO!" I cried. Even though the Winno was a good distance away from Luca, we could still see the horrible act taking place on the dock. A large Tros had crawled out from the waters and was now positioned right in the middle of the Lucans, it's long tentacles wrapped around two small children. Their pitiful screams of pain and fear echoed out across the waves. I thought I was going to be sick with sympathy listening to it.

"How are we going to help them?" Yuna asked. "We're too far away from the dock to jump or swim, and besides if we do decide to swim the Tros will attack us and then we have no chance."

"Then we wait." Paine said sharply, her red eyes glaring at us as if we were the stupidest people alive.

"How can you say that so calmly while two children are about to be ripped to pieces?!" I cried shrilly, losing all control of myself, and I noticed a few people turning their heads to stare at us, but at the moment I didn't care. "Do you even have a heart under all that leather?!"

"Rikku..." Yuna said, putting her arm around my shaking shoulders. Paine just stared at me with her usual cold stare and I wanted so badly to continue ranting when the sound of running feet slammed across the deck behind us, diverting my attention from those deep crimson eyes.

"Eh.." I whispered as I turned to see who was making such a racket. There was a blur of blonde hair and black clothing as a small arm wrapped itself securely around my waist, wrenching me from Yuna's grasp. I barely had time to scream before I felt myself vaulted into the sky, flying gracefully through the air over the crowd of gaping onlookers, and just above the sea's angry waves.  
"Hey! What's the big idea? Lemme go! LEMME GO!" I cried as I struggled in my attacker's tiny arms, my long hair blocking my view of his or her face.

"Lady Rikku, please stop thrashing, unless you want to be a fish's lunch." The voice was female, and I quickly wrapped my arms around her waist just in case her grip loosened, sending me tumbling downward into the water. Her choice of words was so darn familiar..

"Lady Rikku..." I thought. "Who's the only person that calls me by that name?"

"Raven???" I questioned, trying and failing to brush my bangs out of my face.

"Yes Ma'am, now hold on.. This may hurt."

I whirled my head around just in time to see the Luca dock rushing up to meet us.. Realizing that I didn't have time to 'brace myself', I leapt out of the pale girls arms, slamming into the deck on my side. The pain from my landing shot up and down the left portion of my petite body in nauseating waves, and I barely had the strength to pull myself to my feet. Raven stood a few feet from me, searching rapidly through a small red handbag.

"How and why did you do that?" I called out to her in a shaky voice, as I brushed dirt from my scrapes. The Tros roared, and I could hear the children scream.

"I used my rod to vault us over the water from the ship, and you DID say that you wanted to help somehow... I figured I would take you with me." She replied, pulling a large black dress sphere from her bag, and I recognized the dark orb immediately..

"You're gonna use the Dark Knight?" I asked skeptically. Most people shied away from the sphere because of its energy draining powers.

"Yeah... it's the strongest sphere I own." She replied as a dark red light engulfed her tiny frame, and a circle of black smoke bubbled up around her feet. I could still hear the screams of the two children, and I glanced anxiously over at the Winno and back again at the Tros, wondering how long it would take Yuna and Paine to arrive on the scene. Raven and I couldn't fight this big a fiend alone.

Suddenly I heard a the sound of metal slamming against concrete, and I turned to see that Raven had jammed her iron rod deep into the ground as she slowly sank into the hole the dark knight dress sphere had created. Before she was totally submerged she cried..

"Lady Rikku, distract the fiend while I complete my change, try to cut of the arms holding the little ones!"

I nodded as I tore my twin daggers from their pouches, and dashed toward the beast assaulting the civilians. Dodging the swinging arms, I struck out again and again, finally cutting through an arm clutching onto a small girl. The Tros screamed in pain as its arm hit the dock with a plop, releasing the girl from its disgusting grip. She scampered away in the direction of her mother, and I raised my knives again to stab the arm around the boy when the ground started to quake uncontrollably. My eyes darted away from the monster and as soon as they did, I became aware of my careless mistake. The creature saw it's open opportunity to strike me, and it did so, slinging me across the dock. I hit the ground with a scream, and skidded to a stop before some crates.

"Rikku!!" I heard Yunie's voice cry out my name, and the sound of her feet thundered in my ears as she ran over to me. I felt her cradle my head in her arms, brushing my long braids from my eyes.

"I guess you guys finally made it, huh?" I painfully choked out. My back was killing me, and the ground shaking so badly wasn't helping anything.

She didn't have time to answer because the dock pitched violently, and we were both thrown head over heels backwards. This time instead of landing on my back, I crashed into a crate, and the force of the blow slammed me into an upright position. Sitting there I became well aware of the reason for the earthquake.

The hole, which Raven had descended into earlier, now produced two tiny flaming hands pulling whatever horror lay behind them into the calm world of Spira. My breath caught in my throat as a fiery creature in the shape of a human clawed itself out of the abyss. As it stood on spiky armored legs, it reached into the hole once again, retrieving a huge black sword, also engulfed with angry flames.

"Raven..." I whispered to myself, but was it really her? Could that awful looking creature help us to defeat a monster equally horrendous? Obviously it could, because suddenly she broke into a sprint, her flaming weapon held over her head in the same position she had held her rod the night she had almost bashed my head in. The fiend whipped it's long tentacles out at her in an attempt to stop her assault before she brought her sword down, but it was way to late. With a scream, Raven swung her weapon with a force so strong that when she sliced through the Tros's arm, she slammed the concrete, forming a long, thick crack down the dock.

When the tentacle hit the ground, it let go of the second child, and the young boy ran just as quickly as his predecessor had, holding onto his wounded arms with his bleeding hands.

"Who-who is that?" I heard a voice stammer next to me. I felt a warm hand come down on mine, as Yunie crawled into a sitting position next to me. I lay my head on her shoulder, trying to ease the pain in my back and head. The ground wasn't swaying quite as badly now, and I found my voice just long enough to reply..

"A fan of ours... I'll introduce you to her later, but now shouldn't we try to help her?"

"I think she's doing pretty well on her own." A different voice answered. Paine stood above us, propping her long sword up against the crates we were leaning against.

"I think she's right." Yuna agreed. "Besides, I'm kinda afraid of what she might do, considering the way that dress sphere looks..." Yuna gasped loudly and pointed back towards the battle. "Look!."

I followed her quaking finger, and also sucked in a quick breath of air..

"No way..." I whispered to no one in particular.

Raven had yet again drove her weapon into the ground, and a ring of dark acid was bubbling around her blood red boots. The Tros's remaining arms were tied into a tight knot, subduing it for the moment.

"Dra byeh oui ryja lyicat draca baubma, oui femm nalaeja dah vumt! Drec ec so ykuho, so vayn, so yhkan. PA KUHA!"

She wrenched the sword from the ground, sending a wall of acid filled pain flying into the surprised monster. It let out one last dying scream, and was vaporized by the strongest Darkness attack I had ever seen. I wasn't just destroyed in an explosion of pyre flies, it was literally VAPORIZED. A few lazy pyre flies flitted into the blue sky before finally disappearing, and that was all that remained of the terrifying beast.

The ground finally stopped it's shaking completely, and the last of the on lookers walked away with bewildered looks frozen on their scratched faces. The three of us climbed warily to our feet as Raven was engulfed in another bath of red light, and when the flames were extinguished, she was left in her normal outfit, her rod lying coldly on the ground near her boots. Slowly the warrior rocked back and forth on her feet as if trying to catch her balance, and without thinking I dashed over to her, praying that she wouldn't fall before I got there. I wrapped my sleeved arms around her waist just as she fell into a crumpled heap against me.

"Lady Rikku.." she spoke softly, almost inaudibly. "Are those kids okay?"

"They sure are..." a voice I recognized as Yunie's said over my shoulder, and I nodded in agreement.

"Are you... Lady Yuna?" Raven asked, hope in her deep emerald eyes.

"Yes, but we'll talk later, you've had quite the morning." She replied.

"No kidding... that was a lot of hurt." Paine said, obviously impressed. I was surprised. It takes a lot to impress Paine.

Raven opened her mouth to protest, but her eyelids began to droop heavily, and soon after she went limp in my arms.

"Paine is she.. she..." I asked, not wanting to finish my sentence.

"No..." Paine said, walking around the girls still body, and reaching down to feel her pulse. "Just out stone cold."

"Maybe we should get her to a room and let her rest." Yuna said. "We're in Luca anyway."

"Good idea, Yunie." I responded, while trying to lift Raven off the ground, and found I couldn't because of my back. Paine reached over and took her into her own arms.

Walking in silence towards the hotels in the middle of town, we all admired the decorations for the festive party that would be held that night. We finally found a hotel we could all agree on, and seeing that we had the 'Grand High Summoner Yuna' with us, they gave us the best suite in the place. Yuna could really put on the charm when she wanted to. When we had settled into our extremely comfortable room, Paine spoke up.

"Rikku, who exactly is she, and how do you know her?"

"Well..." I began my story of the night before, of meeting Raven on the dock, my near death experience, the way she adored Yuna, and the fact that the girl was half Al Bhed and her mother was killed.

"Hm. Sounds like she's been through a lot." Paine said after I was finished.

"Maybe that explains her powerful Darkness attack?" Yuna asked. "I've seen a lot of attacks, but I've never seen anything like that, and doesn't the underworld feed off of your strongest emotions?"

"Exactly." Paine replied. "Seems like Yuna's number one fan has a lot of agony going on behind that pretty face."

I could only nod and gently brush the hair back from Raven's fragile face. Even while she was sleeping, she looked so sad...

"Rikku... you know she looks a lot like you." Yuna said pointing at Raven.

"She does?" I asked. Totally surprised. I hadn't even noticed, until now, and come to think of it she did have the same mouth and hair as I did. Our eyes were the same color....

"Yuna's right." Paine agreed. "I didn't notice it until just now."

I looked at the girl lying so still on top of the feather pillows and wondered whom she really was...

"Why do I feel like I know you...?" I thought, racking my brain for the answer and not finding one.

A yawn rose in my throat. Though I had only been awake for four hours at the very most, I was exhausted.. The pain in my back was terrible and I vaguely thought I should take a potion to heal it, but I was so sleepy that I just wanted to lie on the floor and doze off.

"Hey Rikku, I'm gonna take a nap.. what about you?" Yuna asked. "You too Paine, what are your plans before tonight?"

"I'm gonna go talk to Baralai for a while, see how he's doing." Paine replied.

"We'll I'll take you up on that nap, Yunie. I won't be able to dance and flirt tonight if I don't rest up some."

"Well wake us up when you get back from the temple." Yuna told Paine. "I have to make a speech tonight and I haven't even started practicing."

Paine nodded and walked out the door, closing it gently behind her so as not to wake up the sleeping Raven. Yuna stretched her arms above her head and lay down next to her, snuggling under the covers with a yawn.

"Hey make room for me!" I said in mock anger. Yuna laughed in her usual sing song way, and scooted over enough so that I could squeeze in between them, and I wiggled under the thick feather comforter. Yuna put her arms around my small waist. I placed the top of my head just under her chin, breathing in her favorite perfume just before I fell into a deep much-needed sleep

Thanks for reading everyone.... Again. Please read this and review for me, if I get a lot of good reviews I'll continue with my story. I need to know if anyone is really all that interested.

"Dra byeh oui ryja lyicat draca baubma, oui femm nalaeja dah vumt! Drec ec so ykuho, so vayn, so yhkan. PA KUHA!" translated to English means...

"The pain you have caused these people, you will receive ten fold! This is my agony, my fear, and my anger. BE GONE!" 


End file.
